discovering the least
evidence of game. My companion did not appear more fortunate than I was,
when suddenly a gun went off. At the same time, I saw Sumichrast
pointing to a number of squirrels crossing the glade.

"Have you killed one?" I asked.

"Yes; but it is sticking fast between two branches, sixty feet above the
ground; it is a shot thrown away."

We watched anxiously the rapid bounds of the graceful little animals
which we had just disturbed, as they were fast making their way into the
wood.

"Is l'Encuerado asleep?" I cried, with vexation.

My question was answered by two shot-reports in succession, and almost
immediately Gringalet, l'Encuerado, and Lucien emerged from the forest.
After searching about for a few minutes, the boy raised up his arm and
showed us two squirrels he was holding. We now hastened our steps; the
Indian had taken possession of the game, and was moving on towards our
bivouac, while Lucien ran to meet us.

"Papa, papa!" he cried, all out of breath, "my gun killed one of the
squirrels. Oh! M. Sumichrast, you shall see it; it is gray, with a tail
like a plume."

"But was it really you that shot?" I asked.

"Oh yes! I shot, but l'Encuerado held my gun; we aimed into the middle
of them, for there were a great many. If you could only have seen how
they jumped! The one I hit climbed up on the tree close by; but it soon
fell as dead as a stone. L'Encuerado says that it hadn't time to suffer
much pain."

The poor child was making his _debut_ as a sportsman, and his heart
seemed rather full, although he was very proud of this first proof of
his skill. Sumichrast was the first to congratulate him. As for me,
although I was well aware of the Indian's prudence, I made up my mind,
if only for the sake of economizing our powder, both to blame him and
also to caution him against his desire of letting the boy shoot.

"Come," said I to Lucien, who was hugging his gun against his chest,
"you must be our leader in finding our way back to our encampment. You
marked out the road, so mind you don't mislead us."

Our young guide led us back to our starting-point with far more
self-possession than I expected.

"A child's attention is always being drawn away," observed Sumichrast to
me. "How do you explain Lucien's having followed the trail so readily?"

"Perhaps because it was partly his own work," I replied.

"It is, too, because I am so short," replied the child, with an arch
smile; "I am much